F129 
.G695 F3 




lass 



'F-\2.9 



llimk • (T'^'T ?" F~3 



pui-:si:nti:i) by 



V. 



HISTORIC 
GREEN POINT 



A Brief Account of the Beginning and Develop- 
ment of the Northerly Section of the Borough 
of Brooklyn, City of New York, locally known 
as Green Point 



By 

WILLIAM L. FELTER, Ph.D. 

Principal of Girls' High School, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



ISSUED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SEMICENTENNIAL OF 

THE GREEN POINT SAVINGS BANK 

; 

AND BY THAT INSTITUTION 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



Gift 
Publishf^v 






HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



PRESIDENTS OF THE GREEN POINT 
SAVINGS BANK 



William M. Meserole 
Edward F. Williams . 
Timothy Perry . . . 
Ephraim a. Walker . 
George W. Felter . . 



January, 1869 — January, 1873 
January, 1873 — May, 1880 

July, 1880 — January, 1909 

January, 1909 — December, 1917 
January, 191 8 — 



VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE GREEN POINT 
SAVINGS BANK 

George S. Barton. . . January, 1869- 



Nathaniel S. Bailey 
Farrel Logan . . 
Henry Preston 

W'lLLIAM FOULKS 

Harvey E. Talmage 
Ephraim A. Walker 
Adrian Meserole . 
Charles H. Reynolds 
Donald A. Manson . 



January, 1877 
January, 1874 
January, 1880 
March, 1878 
January, 188 1 



January, 1869- 

January, 1874- 

January, 1877- 

January, 1879 

January, 1880 — January, 1896 

January, 1881 — January, 1909 

January, 1897 — September, 1913 

January, 1909 — 

January, 191 4 — 



PRESENT TRUSTEES OF THE GREEN POINT 
SAVINGS BANK 

William B. Cater Donald A. Manson 

Henry Ducker David Martin 

George W. Felter Joseph S. Montgomery 

Frank S. Harlow George H. Perry 

Lewis Jurgens William C. Reid 

James A. McCafferty Charles H. Reynolds 
Frederick W. Smith 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



DECEASED TRUSTEES OF THE GREEN POINT 
SAVINGS BANK 



H. S. Anable 
Nathaniel S. Bailey 
George S. Barton 
Fernand S. Bellevue 
A. M. Bliss 
Neziah Bliss 
D, D. BoYCE 
Marvin Briggs 
Herman Cottrell 
John B. Downing 

NiCKOLAS DrOGE 

Henry Eggers 
Carl Feitzinger 
John D. Felter 
William Foulks 
Samuel S. Free 
George Hagemeyer 
Andrew J. Hennion 
P. C. Ingersoll 
James L. Jensen 
Thomas D. Jones 
Christian H. Koch 
Farrel Logan 
Daniel McCollum 



Adrian Meserole 

Archibald K. Meserole 

William M. Meserole 

Adam Metz 

Jonathan Moore 

Claus Olandt 

William H. Paine 

William H. Peer 

Albert L. Perry 

Timothy Perry 

Henry Preston, Sr. 

James Rollins 

Thomas F. Rowland, Sr. 

John Rowley 

Thomas C. Smith 

George H. Stone 

Frank S. Street 

Harvey E. Talmage 

James W. Valentine 

Chris. Von Bergen 

Ephraim a. Walker 

George W. Watts 

Robert J. Whittemore 

Edward F. Williams 



RESIGNED TRUSTEES OF THE GREEN POINT 
SAVINGS BANK 

Peter Burden Thomas J. Preston, Sr. 

Thomas F. Rowland, Jr. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



STATEMENT 

October i, 1918 

GREEN POINT SAVINGS BANK 



Resources Par Value 

Bonds and Mortgages.. . $ 6,486,575. 

U. S. Government Bonds 342,250. 

State Bonds 366,000. 

County Bonds 305,000. 

Bonds of Cities of this 

State 809,800. 

Bonds of Cities of other 

States 1,257,000. 

Town Bonds 45,000, 

Rail Road Bonds 1,594,000. 

Market Value of Bonds . . 

Bank Building 125,000. 

Other Real Estate 24,234.19 

Interest due and accrued 184,200.69 

Cash on hand and in 

Banks 803,032.84 

Liberty Bond Subscrip- 
tions 40,000. 

$ 12,382,092.72 

Liabilities 

Balance due Depositors. $10,946,355.12 

Taxes Accrued 2,000. 

Guaranty Fund 1,433,737.60 

$ 12,382,092.72 



Market Value 

$ 6,486,575. 



4,489,455.54 
125,000. 
24,234.19 
184,200.69 

803,032.84 

40,000. 



$ 12,152,498.26 



$10,946,355.12 
2,000. 
1,204,143.14 

$ 12,152,498.26 



10 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 11 



FOREWORD 

THE Green Point Savings Bank takes great pleasure 
in presenting this succinct account of the history 
of this section of the city where its own continuous exist- 
ence of half a century has been successfully spent. The 
history of a town, city, state, or nation is largely the his- 
tory of its great men, and so no apology is necessary in 
listing the names of the early settlers, the pioneers of in- 
dustry, and the leaders in social, educational, and church 
life. Scattered through the text are various illustrations 
that give a clear view of the personality of these founders 
and also of the fifty years of life of the Savings Bank. 
The Officials of the Bank hope that this record will be 
of general interest and that it may prove worth preserva- 
tion because of its historic value. 

Grateful acknowledgment of deep obligation is hereby 
made to Mr. Buel C. HafF for supplying to the author 
all the salient facts. His research work is worthy of all 
praise. 

Credit is also due Mr. Andrew Jackson Provost and Mr. 
Walter M. Meserole for valuable assistance. 



12 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 13 



HISTORY OF GREEN POINT 

EVERYBODY is interested in the beginning of things. 
We look at the majestic oak towering to the sky, 
its wide-spreading branches the home of the feathered 
songsters of the an% its grateful shade a boon to the weary 
traveler, and m nnagmation we go back to the tmy acorn 
from which the giant oak developed. The first words 
of the Bible are: "In the beginning." Rome, the city of 
the seven hills, traced its origin to the fabled Romulus 
and Remus suckled by a w^olf. Berne, the capital of 
Switzerland, is said to have obtained its name from its 
reputed founder the Duke of Zaehringen, who determined 
to name the city he planned to build for the first animal 
he met and killed. Tradition asserts that he killed a bear. 
At all events the bear is to-day the national emblem of 
that land of mountains and lakes. So Green Point many 
years ago had its humble beginnings, although it can 
claim no Romulus nor Remus. It is our purpose to dis- 
cover these beginnings and bring the story of growth and 
development down to the present day. 

Green Point is a peninsula. On the north and east 
Newtown creek marks ofi^ its boundaries. On the south 
Bushwick creek separates it in part from Williamsburgh, 
and the East River is its western boundary. This geograph- 
ical situation almost entirely isolated, gave it a peculiar 
opportunity for separate development and it is there- 
fore not to be wondered at that the early settlers of Green 
Point were men of independence of character, self-depend- 
ent, and possessing those native traits that make for vigor- 
ous manhood. 

To the early settlers, however, these bodies of water 
were known by other names. Newtown creek was spoken 



14 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

of sometimes as Maspeth kill. In the early days, there 
were high banks stretching from the mouth of this 
creek as far as the present Manhattan avenue bridge. 
Following the line of this creek inland we would 
have found in early times a salt marsh extending to 
a point south of the present Blissville bridge. Here the 
banks rose in height and continued so as far as Penny 
bridge. This salt marsh was known as the "Back 
Meadows." They formed a large irregular triangle with 
the apex at about the present intersection of Driggs ave- 
nue and Humboldt street. Near this point was the head 
of a water course called WyckofF's creek, running northerly 
near to the line of Green Point avenue and then easterly 
to Maspeth kill, its mouth being somewhat south of where 
stands the Blissville bridge. 

On the north side of Green Point avenue these salt 
meadows were drained by Whale creek, which in its course 
followed the general line of Humboldt street. This creek 
as well as WyckofF's creek had many small tributaries 
and devious courses. 

Bushwick creek was in the early days known as Nor- 
man's kill. This creek, too, drained salt meadows. At 
high water the tide covered the meadows, forming a beau- 
tiful miniature bay, but the retreating waters revealed 
an expanse of green sedge and brown mud flats. Through 
these wandered the two deep channels of the kill as well 
as numerous little meandering tributaries. 

A traveler in those times gazing at Green Point from a 
boat on the East River would have noticed many high 
sandy headlands, remnants of the early glacial period, 
similar to those still remaining along the north shore of 
Long Island. Near where the foot of Freeman street now 
lies, a point of land jutted abruptly beyond the shore 
line into the river for a considerable distance. This point, 
covered with river ooze and green grass, naturally attracted 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 15 

the gaze of the sailors on passing vessels, who gave to this 
verdant projection the name of Green Point. 

Originally Green Point meant only this projecting piece 
of land, but later the name was applied to the entire penin- 
sula from Newtown creek to Bushwick creek with the 
enclosed meadows. It was not until 1854, when this 
section of the city with the rest of the town of Bushwick 
and then the young city of Williamsburgh were united 
with the older city of Brooklyn, that the elastic name of 
Green Point was again stretched to cover the whole of 
the present seventeenth ward. 

It would appear from what precedes that the neck of 
high ground lying east of the Back Meadows and north 
of Meeker avenue, known for many years as WyckofF 
farm and later as Kingsland farm, was not considered in 
the early days as a part of Green Point. This section 
now, however, forms a very important portion of the com- 
munity with its pleasant homes, its large industrial estab- 
lishments and beautiful but improperly named Winthrop 
park. 

Reference has been made to the peninsular form of 
Green Point, almost surrounded by river, creeks, and 
marshes. Its only upland connection with Williamsburgh 
was measured by the length of Driggs avenue from Leonard 
street to Humboldt street. Along the present line of 
Driggs avenue ran an ancient highway, the west end of 
which was at a public landing place on Bushwick creek, 
near the corner of Guernsey street and Driggs avenue. 
This was called the Wood Point Landing. This road 
east led along the line of Driggs avenue to Humboldt 
street and from that point followed a winding course to 
Bushwick village. This road along Green Point's extreme 
southern border remained the sole public highway until 
1838. There was, however, a farm lane with gates at 
each farm line, which the traveler was obliged to open 



16 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

and close at each passage, giving communication to the 
Green Point farms from this Wood Point road which took 
its name from the landing. This farm lane started from 
the back end of the most northerly farms (Freeman street 
west of Manhattan avenue), ran across the hilly portions 
of the farms to about Green Point avenue and Oakland 
street, and then along the edge of the Back Meadows to 
its junction with the Wood Point road at Humboldt street. 

Let us in imagination follow a traveler of the early days 
as he goes from Green Point to New York, an event for 
the traveler at once wearying and arduous. He would 
follow the farm lane and the Wood Point road to Bush- 
wick village. From that point his journey took him to 
Bushwick Cross Roads (Bushwick and Flushing avenues), 
then along the south side of the Wallabout swamp to 
Flushing and Nostrand avenues, from thence he took his 
way over the hills by a crooked road to Bedford Corners 
(Bedford avenue and Fulton street). There he would 
come upon the road from Jamaica to the Brooklyn ferry. 
This road followed the lines of Atlantic and Flatbush 
avenues and Fulton street to the river shore. Every 
foot of the trip was made in deep sand or loose cobbles. 
It was a long, wearisome ride on those washed-out and 
stony roads, over many miles in the springless wagons 
of that day. 

The earliest authentic record in the history of Green 
Point dates from the purchase of the land from the Indians 
by the Dutch West India Company in 1638. The ancient 
town records of Bushwick reveal the founding of the Town- 
ship of Bushwick by Governor Stuyvesant in 1660, four 
years before New Amsterdam passed under the control 
of the English and became New York. It will be recalled 
that he was the last of the Dutch governors of New Am- 
sterdam, he of the wooden leg and peppery temper. It 
appears that the governor received a petition reciting 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 17 

the fact that "Fourteen Frenchmen with a Dutchman 
Pieter Janse Wit, their interpreter, have arrived here." 
Acting favorably upon this petition the Dutch governor 
founded the Township of Rushwick. The estabhshment 
of this township marks the beginning of social and polit- 
ical life for this section. 

The interpreter, Pieter Janse Wit, located his farm 
upon the neck of high ground, lying north of A'Teeker ave- 
nue between the Back Meadows and Maspeth kill, and 
this tract later became one of the most desirable portions 
of Green Point. It is evident that Pieter Janse Wit had 
qualities of leadership and was a man of parts, for he be- 
came the first magistrate of the town and for many years 
headed the list of names in the records. In 1720 this land 
was purchased by Peter Lott, and twenty-nine years later 
was sold by his son of the same name to Abraham Polhemus 
of the Brooklyn family of that name. In 1799 it was con- 
veyed to Peter Wyckoff of Bushwick, and in 1847 the 
larger portion was bought by David and Ambrose G. 
Kingsland, who held it until it was laid out into lots and 
sold for building purposes in the eighties. It is in the 
memory of persons still living that this transformation 
took place, of a truck farm to its present crowded homes 
and streets. 

It was only a few years after the purchase from the 
Indians that a number of so-called Norman families, who 
were really Scandinavians, settled here. One of these 
families, headed by Dirck Volckertsen, better known as 
"Dirck the Norman," came into possession of the whole 
of Green Point. He was one of a small group of adven- 
turous Scandinavians who early came to New Amsterdam 
and engaged successfully in the business enterprises of 
that period. Those were the days of smuggling, of rum 
drinking, of hardy sailors free in the use of their dirks, of 
gambling, of risk and adventure. The court records in 



18 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

the case of Jan de Pree vs. Dirck the Norman, bring to 
Hght an amusing and instructive page of the hfe of that 
day. Dirck must have thrived on htigation, for his name 
often appears as complainant or defendant on the court 
minutes. 

The patent granting the ownership of Green Point to 
Dirck the Norman was dated April 3, 1645. He built 
the first house presumably the following year. It rested 
upon a knoll, about where Calyer street is laid out, and 
from one to two hundred feet west of the present line of 
Franklin street, only a few feet from the exact location 
where more than two hundred years later the Green Point 
Savings Bank began its successful career. The site of 
the home was evidently chosen with care. The lawn sloped 
gently in front to Norman's kill on the south, and grad- 
ually to the East River on the west. The house was of 
stone, one and a half stories in height, with dormer win- 
dows, built in quamt Dutch style with old Dutch doors, 
studded with glass eyes, and brass knockers. Eventually, 
the farm, orchard, and meadows became among the best 
of those of early days. It was Dirck the Norman who 
gave the name to Norman's kill, a name that disappeared 
as applied to a body of water but reappeared in the name 
of Norman avenue. 

By trade Dirck the Norman was a ship carpenter, an 
occupation that for many years kept busy many men in 
Green Point. Originally Green Point was an agricultural 
community, but two centuries after the time of Dirck, 
ship building became its chief industry. Many of the old 
boys still living recall with pleasant memories the many 
launchings of vessels from the shore of Green Point into 
the East River. For half a century this industry held 
sway to be deposed later by other industrial activities. 
Dirck, however, did not follow his trade but devoted him- 
self to agriculture with marked success. At his death 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 19 

his sons inherited these lands and sold them in 1718. The 
family then scattered, some going to Brooklyn, others 
to New Jersey, but wherever they went they became 
men of affairs and influence. 

The only house still remaining as a relic of the first 
settlers in Green Point may be found at Meeker avenue 
adjoining Newtown creek. Some modern touches have been 
added to it during the almost two and one-half centuries it 
has stood, but it is still a good example of one type of the 
Dutch farmhouse of the time of Pieter Praa. It was built 
by Joost Durie (George Duryea), a Huguenot who came 
from Holland to America and settled in New Utrecht. 
Later, about 1681, he removed to the disputed land between 
Bushwick and Newtown and erected this house. Here the 
Duryea family lived for over a century. The house then 
passed into the hands of Josiah Blackwell, for whom Black- 
well's Island is named, and finally became the possession of 
William Bleser, in whose estate it still remains. When this 
house was built the Dutch living outside the stockade were 
obliged to fortify their homes, because the Indians were 
decidedly hostile as a result of the crimes against them by 
William Keith, the Dutch Governor. Beneath the porch in 
the wall may be seen two gun holes to be used in defending 
the house against Indian attacks. 

An investigation of the early records brings to light a 
shrewd and wealthy business woman, Christina Cappoens. 
She was a prominent figure in New Amsterdam, and at 
the time of her death lived on what is now known as Stone 
street in New York City. Although she was never pos- 
sessed of a home of her own in Green Point, she was in 
many respects a very important link in the development 
of this community, as will shortly appear. The name as 
given above was her maiden name, and like all women 
of that time she was known by her maiden name together 
with the added title of "wife (or widow) of Jacob Hay," 



20 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

and later "wife (or widow) of David Jochensen." She 
seems to have been very successful in her marriages. 

In 1653 Jacob Hay purchased from Dirck the Norman 
the Northern part of Green Point, the line of division 
running from the river at the north end of Franklin street, 
to the northeast corner of St. Anthony's church and thence 
east to the meadows at Oakland street. The land so pur- 
chased was inherited in 1693 ^y ^h^ only child of Christina 
Cappoens, Maria Hay, who had in 1684 married for her 
second husband Pieter Praa, the third and greatest per- 
sonality in the settlement of Green Point. Captain Pieter 
Praa was a man of great prominence in the history of the 
Town of Bushwick. He easily ranks as the greatest man 
from its earliest days to the time of its merger with the 
City of Brooklyn two centuries later. Captain Praa was 
of Huguenot extraction and was born in Leyden, Holland, 
1651^. His parents were from Dieppe in France on the 
English Channel. Like other Huguenots they were ex- 
pelled from their native land owing to religious persecution. 
It was during their temporary stay in Holland, a refuge 
to the oppressed of all nations, that Pieter was born. When 
he was five years old his parents emigrated to the new 
world and settled first in Newtown and then in Bushwick 
near the intersection of Flushing avenue and Broadway. 

After his marriage to Maria Hay, Captain Praa and his 
wife lived in a stone house on their Green Point farm, 
which was located on the meadow's edge at Freeman 
street just east of Oakland street. This house was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1832. His history is another evidence 
of the loss to France that came as a result of the expulsion 
of the Huguenots. Pieter Praa was not only captain of 
militia but was magistrate as well. He was influential in 
both local and provincial politics. He was a magnificent 
horseman and a genuine sportsman. He was easily the 
leader in public affairs of the community. He added 



2^2 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

largely to his original land possessions and purchased from 
the sons of Dirck the Norman all their remaining Green 
Point land. In 1687 he bought from Anneke Jan Bogardus 
of New Amsterdam, a tract of about 130 acres of land at 
the mouth of Maspeth kill. This tract, known as Dominie's 
Hoek, later as Hunter's Point and Long Island City, con- 
sisted of two or three low hillocks rising out of a sea of 
encompassing marshes valuable for their salt hay for cattle. 
In addition to the above Captain Praa owned some 40,000 
acres of land in New Jersey. 

Captain Praa's death occurred in 1740, He left no son 
to perpetuate his name, but he had numerous progeny 
through his four daughters, many of whom have played 
prominent parts in business and politics in Green Point 
and in larger spheres of action. These four daughters 
were Elizabeth, who married Jan Meserole; Maria, who 
married Wynant Van Zandt; Christina, who married 
David Provoost; Annetti, who married William Bennett. 
At the time of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) there 
were but five families on Green Point, all of them lineal 
descendants of Pieter Praa. The heads of these families 
were as follows: 

1. Abraham Meserole (son of Jan Meserole) and grand- 
son of Pieter Praa, who lived on the banks of the East 
River, between what are now India and Java streets. 
Later the house in which he lived was occupied by Neziah 
Bliss, whose wife was a granddaughter of the above named 
Abraham Meserole. This house was demolished about 
1875. It was at this period that nearly all the old relics 
gave place to the necessities of modern industrial 
developments. 

2. Jacob Meserole (another son of Jan Meserole), who 
resided in the southerly part of Green Point, near Bush- 
wick creek meadows (between the present Manhattan 
avenue and Lorimer street near Norman avenue) not far 




CAPTAIN PIETER PRAA 



24 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

from the residence, still standing, of his grandson, the 
late Adrian Meserole. His farm included the entire southerly 
portion of Green Point. 

3. Jacob Bennett (son of William Bennett, whose wife 
Annetti was a daughter of Pieter Praa), who dwelt in a 
house in the northerly portion of Green Point, near the 
present Clay street, midway between Franklin street and 
Manhattan avenue. His farm was later known as the 
"Griffin Farm" and for many years was owned by the 
trustees of Union College. 

4. Jonathan Provoost (son of David Provoost, whose 
wife Christina was a daughter of Pieter Praa), who lived 
on the east side of Green Point in a stone house on the 
edge of the meadows, formerly the residence of Pieter 
Praa. Later this house was occupied by the late James 
W. Valentine, whose wife was a great-granddaughter of 
the above named Jonathan Provoost. The old Provoost 
burying ground near the northeast corner of India and 
Oakland streets was removed about 1875 and no trace of 
it remains. 

5. Jacobus Calyer (whose wife Janitie was a daughter 
of Jan Meserole and granddaughter of Pieter Praa), who 
occupied the house referred to and described in previous 
pages, near the mouth of Bushwick creek and built by 
Dirck the Norman. 

These five families at the time of the Revolutionary 
War constituting the entire population of Green Point, 
must have lived quiet lives, cultivating the fertile fields 
which had descended to them from their ancestors. 
Each farmer had his own large boat which he used in carry- 
ing his surplus farm products to the New York market. 
This does not mean that the East River was crossed in a 
straight line. It was necessary to drop down the river 
at least as far as the present Brooklyn bridge, for New 
York in those days did not extend north of the City Hall. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 25 

The homes of that period were all after the Dutch style, 
one and a half stories in height, the lower portion of stone, 
and the upper usually of wood, with dormer windows 
and wide overhang. A broad hall running through the 
middle of the main floor was lighted in the day time either 
by the bull's eye glass insets in the upper part of each 
door, resembling little port holes, or b}^ opening the upper 
portion of the door. Knockers of brass or iron hung on 
the outside of the door to announce the arrival of a caller, 
and a great flat stone helped the guest to step over the 
sill. It is easy to believe that stone step, sill, door, and 
knocker were kept in immaculate condition by these Dutch 
descendants, who prized personal and household cleanliness 
and almost elevated them to the position of sacred rites. 
It requires no stretch of the imagination to know that 
these Green Pointers had a rich and varied larder. Their 
orchards gave a profusion of luscious fruits. The fields 
yielded in abundance all the then known vegetables and 
cereals, and the adjoining creeks teemed with pan fish 
and blue crabs, a condition that existed until the advent 
of the oil refining factories. Their refuse drained into 
the creeks killed all fish life. 

In these early days the houses were heated by great 
wide open fire places in the living room. This was the 
place where the food was prepared and eaten and where 
the family in the evening gathered about the fire place, 
w^armed themselves at the great log fire, and discussed 
family, social, and political aft'airs. The casual caller 
was entertained at this hospitable fire place. Wood was 
the only fuel and everv farm had its wood lot. For the 
fire a huge back log was rolled into place, then smaller 
logs about six feet in length would be piled in front and on 
top of the back log. A roaring fire could easily be kept 
going to make the entire house comfortably warm except 
in bitter winter weather. 



26 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

Each house had its outdoor oven in which the busy 
housewife could easily bake a dozen loaves of bread or 
as many pies at a time. The vigorous outdoor life was 
conducive to healthy appetites, but these Dutch families 
were all good providers. Large families were also the rule. 

This sparsely settled section gave small opportunity 
for social life. The farms were large and widely separated 
and the church and store a great distance away. The 
gallants who sued for the favor of the several daughters 
of Pieter Praa and Maria Hay must have been rowed up 
and across the East River by their slaves in order to do 
their courting. All these daughters married merchants 
or professional men from across the river. 

Prior to 1824 nearly all Dutch families were slave holders. 
Pieter Praa was the owner of quite a number and in his 
will he provided that each slave should choose among 
which of the children he desired to serve. To his body 
servant, Jack, was given by terms of the will an island, 
a part of which is now Long Island City and which was 
known for more than a century later as "Jack's Island." 
Although not a large island it was sufficiently large for 
his maintenance. The Dutch enjoyed a reputation of 
treating their slaves with consideration. Although the 
act of 1824 freed all slaves in New York State, these black 
servants continued to regard themselves as members of 
the household to which they had formerly belonged. Many 
of these slaves had been brought up to a trade and there 
was work in abundance for all. 

It is a matter of general history that during the greater 
part of the Revolutionary War this portion of Long Island 
was in the possession of the British, and loyalty, real or 
assumed, to the King of England seemed the only path 
of safety for the Green Point families to follow. It ap- 
pears, however, that Abraham Meserole's son, John, cared 
less about safety than did his neighbors, for he came under 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 27 

suspicion as a rebel and was at one time taken prisoner 
and confined in a New York jail. Tradition reports that 
all the families suffered severely from the depredations 
of the British soldiers and their camp followers. 

After the close of the Revolutionary War and for more 
than a third of the succeeding century, Green Point main- 
tained its seclusiveness. The dwellers upon the well- 
ordered farms had little intercourse with the outside world. 
Row boats or sail boats would, when necessary, convey 
them across the river. On Sundays, on horseback or in 
wagons, they might be seen taking their way across the 
neck to the Bushwick church. Its well established char- 
acter as a secluded nook, geographically remote and not 
easilv accessible, remained until about 1840. In fact the 
history of the place up to this date is largely the family 
chronicles of the Meseroles, Calyers, Provoosts and Ben- 
netts, the married names of the daughters of Pieter Praa, 
Green Point's most distinguished early citizen. 

We have traced thus far the first two centuries of the 
history of Green Point, an agricultural period, from 1638, 
when the Dutch West India Company purchased from 
the Indians the tract of land that later became the Town 
of Bushwick (all of Brooklyn lying north of Broadway 
and Division avenue), to 1838. It was the opening of 
the first public highway in 1838 that made possible the 
development of Green Point into a small town. This 
highway ran across the land along the line of the present 
Franklin street, with bridges over Newtown and Bushwick 
creeks, and became a part of the turnpike running from 
Williamsburgh to Astoria. Green Point thus lost its posi- 
tion of splendid isolation and became connected on either 
side with the greater world beyond its borders. During 
these two centuries there was no church, no school, no 
store. The early families resorted for religious, educa- 
tional, and political affairs to Bushwick village (Metro- 



28 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

politan and Bushwick avenues), which was the municipal 
center of the Town of Bushwick, of which Green Point 
was poHtically a part. 

The time had now come when the land that had been 
turned by a plow was to be used as sites for homes and 
factories. The high sandy bluffs facing the river were 
gradually to be leveled. The rolling country behind the 
bluffs, which had been brought up to a high state of cul- 
tivation by skilled farmers, was to be intersected by streets. 
The fine orchards and scattered fruit trees along the fences 
between the fields were to be obliterated and linger in the 
memory only as the name of the southeasterly part of 
Green Point. The era of the industrial development had 
dawned. 

Reference has been made in a previous paragraph to 
the ship-building industry as one of the most potent factors 
in the development of Green Point. While ship building 
began in the colonies in 1607, the new industry appeared 
here about 1840. The place was well adapted for this new 
departure, for the beaches on the East River front were 
of fine white sand. The expanding world commerce fol- 
lowing the overthrow of the Napoleonic power and the 
expansion of American commerce created a demand for 
strong, swift, and easily handled ocean carriers. This 
demand was met in the creation of the historic American 
clipper ship, long reputed the best and fastest in the world. 
Although some yards launched as many as three ships 
at a time, it was impossible to create a sufficient supply. 
The Yankee crew on board these beautiful vessels with 
graceful lines did much to gain for these ships an enviable 
reputation. As every man on board from the captain to 
the cabin boy was a shareholder, it was easy to develop 
and maintam a fine esprit du corps. 

The appearance of the East River beaches must have 
been extremely interesting, not to say fascinating. On 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 29 

the ways were vessels in various stages of completion in 
charge of great gangs of shipwrights. Mammoth piles 
of lumber lay about waiting for use; white oak, hackmatack 
and locust for ribs, yellow pine for keelsons and ceiling 
timbers, white pine for floors, and live oak for aprons. 
Through the air was wafted the odor of damp pine chips, 
of pitch and of oakum, while the ceaseless clatter of mallets 
and busy saws gave evidence of strenuous industry. The 
workers came in large numbers, attracted by the permanent 
character of the work, bringing their families and taking 
up their residence here. The farm stage soon passed into 
the village stage of development, then into town, until 
on January i, 1855, Green Point was consolidated with 
Bushwick and the young city of Williamsburgh with the 
older city of Brooklyn. At that time there were in the 
Seventeenth ward about 15,000 of population, but this 
figure was increased to about 30,000 in 1875, when ship- 
building had passed its zenith of growth. 

The hard labor exacted of these makers of ships is worth 
noting. The daily grind was fatiguing and exhausting 
in the extreme. Originally the day's work consisted of 
fifteen hours at the rate of ^1.25 per day. Later through 
labor organizations a ten-hour day was secured and the 
wages were increased by gradual steps until ^2.00 per 
day was the rate. Many of the men went from the yards 
to their homes only to eat and, exhausted by their day's 
labor, to retire. The long, hard day, the exposure to the 
burning heat in summer and the biting cold in winter, 
drained the vitality of the workers and left scant oppor- 
tunity for leisure or wholesome recreation. The equipment 
of the yards was primitive. The sawing was done by 
hand, one laborer being in the pit with face covered by a 
veil to protect him from the sawdust, and one above work- 
ing with a two-man saw. There were no cranes, cables, 
or power helps such as are seen in the modern yard, only 



30 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

man-power to raise the heaviest timbers by hand. The 
following apprentice's indenture throws a flood of light 
upon the working conditions of that day. John Englis 
later became one of the great ship builders of Green 
Point. 

THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH, That John 
Englis, now aged sixteen years, nine months and twenty- 
four days, by and with the consent of George Bell, his 
step-father, hath put himself, and by these Presents doth 
voluntarily and of his own free will and accord put him- 
self, apprentice to Stephen Smith, of the City of New 
York, ship carpenter, to learn the art, trade and mystery 
of a ship carpenter, and after the manner of an apprentice 
to serve from the day of the date herefor, for and during 
and until the full end and term of four years two months 
and seven days next ensuing: during all which time the 
said apprentice his master faithfully shall serve, his secrets 
keep, his lawful commands everywhere readily obey; he 
shall do no damage to his said master, nor see it done 
by others without telling or giving notice thereof to his 
said master: he shall not waste his said master's goods, 
nor lend them unlawfully to any: he shall not contract 
matrimony within the said term: at cards, dice or any 
unlawful game he shall not play, whereby his said master 
may have damage with his own goods, nor with the goods 
of others, without license from his said master, he shall 
neither buy nor sell: he shall not absent himself day or 
night from his master's service without his leave; not 
haunt ale-houses, taverns, dance-houses, or play-houses; 
but in all things behave himself as a faithful apprentice 
ought to do during said term. And the said master shall 
use the utmost of his endeavors to teach, or cause to be 
taught or instructed, the said apprentice in the trade 
or mystery of a ship-carpenter, and the said master shall 
pay to the said apprentice, the sum of Two dollars and 




r-^-^ 






"^ 






•^:=*^_ 






32 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

fifty cents weekly, for each and every week he shall faith- 
fully serve him during the said term. And also shall pay 
him, the said apprentice, the sum of Forty dollars per year, 
payable quarterly for each and everv of the said years, 
which IS in lieu of the meat, drink, washing, lodging, clothing 
and all other necessaries. And for the true performance 
of all and smgular the covenants and agreements afore- 
said, the said parties bind themselves each unto the other 
firmly by these Presents. 

In Witness thereof the parties to the Presents have here 
unto set their hands and seals the loth day of September, 
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-five. Stephen Smith 

John Englis 
George Bell 

The vital importance of the work of building ships to 
the growth of the place is seen in the statement that for 
thirty years (1840-1870), 35% of the population were 
engaged in this industry. Among the many master builders 
who at various times had their yards here were: Edwin 
Childs, William Boggs, William W. Colyer, Jonathan 
Easom, E. S. Whitlock, Thomas A. Seabury, Robert H. 
Snyder, Henry Steers, Lupton and Co., Laurence and 
Foulks, whose yard was at the foot of West street; Webb 
and Bell, whose yard was located at Washington (West) 
and Green streets; Sneeden and Co., later Sneeden and 
Rowland, and finally The Continental Iron Works, at 
West and Calyer streets; Jeremiah Simonson, John Englis 
and Son, and lastly "honest old Jabez Williams," who trans- 
ferred his yard about 1866 from the foot of Montgomery 
street. New York, to Green Point. He was later succeeded 
by his son Edward F. Williams, who after the organization 
of the Green Point Savmgs Bank, became its second 
president. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 33 

By 1870 only a few of the old establishments remained. 
Webb and Bell and John Englis and Son were about the 
only ones having any construction work on the ways in 
that year. George Bell and Eckford Webb, who in their 
day built many ships, clippers, and steamers for the ocean, 
as well as harbor and river craft, constructed the caissons 
for the foundations of the Brooklyn Bridge. The Conti- 
nental Iron Works, however, has remained continuously 
in business with a wonderful record for construction. The 
Englis yards also hold an enviable record, for in their long 
career from 1838 to 191 1, they had built or completed the 
joiner work on one hundred and thirteen steamships or 
steamboats, including "The Grand Republic," "Adiron- 
dack," "C. W. Morse," "Hendrick Hudson," "Trojan," 
"Princeton," "Rensselaer," "Clermont," and "Storm King." 
The decay of the industry was caused by increased costs 
of lumber and copper, labor troubles, the steamboat law 
of 1852, and last but by no means the least cause, the 
building of iron vessels. 

There is one historic event in connection with the chron- 
icles of Green Point which must not be overlooked, the 
building of Captain John Ericsson's "Monitor," an event 
that revolutionized naval warfare. Captain Ericsson born 
in Sweden in 1803, a deep student of mechanics, had al- 
ready won enduring fame as the builder of the "Prince- 
ton," wherein he demonstrated the use of the propeller. 
When he had pleaded in vain with the Washington author- 
ities for the adoption of his "Monitor" plan, two distin- 
guished iron masters of Troy, Hon. John F. Winslow and 
his partner, Hon. John A. Griswold, came to the rescue. 
At their own financial risk they undertook the construc- 
tion of this naval experiment. The attitude of the Wash- 
ington experts concerning the proposed new fighting craft 
is seen in the statement of one of them who observed: 
"It resembles nothing in the heavens above, or the 



34 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

earth beneath, or the waters under the earth. You can 
take it home and worship it without violating any command- 
ment." Despite such rebuffs the "Monitor" was finally 
constructed and boomed the death knell of wooden 
men-of-war. 

It was President Lmcoln hmiself who saved the day by 
the judicious exercise of his great powers of persuasion. 
From the interview when he mtervened, came the govern- 
ment contract for the building of the "Monitor." The 
cost was not to exceed ^275,000 and the time limit was 
loi days. The builders were obliged to guarantee the 
success of the experiment. Winslow and Griswold lacked 
the facilities at Troy, so the hull was built by Thomas F. 
Rowland and launched January 30, 1862, in exactly loi 
days from the date of the contract. The later history 
of the "Monitor" is the history of the United States and 
of naval warfare, for the "cheese box on a raft" on the 
morning of March 9, 1862, vanquished the "conquering 
Merrimac," destroyed her and preserved the Union navy 
from destruction. The life of the "Monitor" was as brief 
as it was adventurous, for she foundered off cape Hatteras 
on the night of December 20, 1862. 

The coming of the ship building industry brought to an 
end the exclusive character of the place and the sole in- 
habitancy of the five families of French Huguenot extrac- 
tion, the descendants of Pieter Praa. Their day with its 
Dutch houses and wide-spreading farms, of bountiful 
orchards, and leafy woods, of Negro slaves, and rustic 
existence was gone beyond recall. The new era brought 
with it many native born Americans as well as a liberal 
sprinkling of English, Irish, Scotch, and Scandinavian 
emigrants. Houses were rapidly built to accommodate 
these newcomers and new streets were laid out. There 
was a considerable movement of population from the 
East side of New York as the advantages of living on this 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 35 

side of the river became known. House builders recog- 
nizing their opportunity built for anticipated profits and 
on speculation, one of the earliest being Mr. John Hillyer, 
a mason by occupation. Practically all of the houses 
were frame dwellings. Land was cheap then. One colored 
inhabitant purchased sixteen lots at fifty dollars each 
and built him a house. This improvement he sold in 1842 
for ^2,300, and the house became Poppy Smith's tavern, 
an inn run by John Smith on Franklin street near Green, 
well known to the earlier inhabitants. 

Communities may be measured by various standards; 
by production, by consumption, by the conservation of 
capital. Just as a man is doomed to ultimate failure 
who habitually spends each week or year his entire income 
for that time, so a community which fails to make pro- 
vision for the inevitable rainy day becomes sooner or later 
a group of impoverished men and women. It is evident 
that Green Point has its fair share of thrifty and prudent 
souls. Their philosophy of life is sound at heart, and the 
history of the Green Point Savings Bank becomes in a 
large measure the history of the people of the place so far 
as earning and saving capacities are concerned. The 
inception and development of this great institution make 
most interestmg readmg. 

The development and growth of the community at this 
time, 1868, had reached a point where it was felt that 
there was a real need for a Savings Bank. A number of 
the prominent citizens perfected an organization and 
made application to the State Legislature for a charter 
for an institution to be known as the Green Point Savings 
Bank. 

On January 11, 1869, the Bank opened its doors for 
business. The good judgment of the incorporators was 
proven during the first year of the Bank's existence when 
deposits aggregating ^135,000 were accumulated. The 



36 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

original banking rooms of the institution were in a small 
two-story frame building on the northeast corner of Frank- 
lin and Oak streets. 

Mention must be made at this point of the leading citizen 
of the village, Neziah Bliss, who married Mary A., the 
daughter of John A. Meserole. Mr. Bliss was born at 
Hebron, Connecticut, in 1790, and was therefore of Yankee 
origin. Circumstances compelled him in early life to be 
self-supporting, but this compulsion developed initiative 
and willingness to meet difficulties and assume respon- 
sibility. He was largely a self-educated man. It was 
about 1 8 10 when he left his Connecticut home and came 
to New York City. Here he became intimate with Robert 
Fulton, who was at that time through his energy and 
financial resources rapidly making steam navigation a 
possibility. Mr. Bliss made it a practice wherever he 
went to seek the acquaintance of men of affairs, the really 
great men who have visions, and later through energy 
and resourcefulness realize their dreams. From Fulton he 
caught an enthusiasm for steam navigation, an enthusiasm 
which led to numerous experiments in the use of steam, 
and which culminated in the manufacture of steam engines 
and steamboats of approved model. 

In 181 1 with Daniel French he organized a company 
in Philadelphia and built a steamboat. In 1816 he was 
in Cincinnati, and becoming acquainted with the son of 
General (afterwards President) William Henry Harrison, 
and with the Harrison backing, he again experimented 
in steamboats and built one which for many years after 
sailed the Mississippi. After further traveling, adventure, 
and investigation into the vast natural resources of the 
West, particularly iron, he returned to New York in 1827, 
rich in knowledge and experience. It was about this time 
that he capitalized his knowledge of iron by establishing 
the Novelty Iron Works at the foot of East 12th street. 



if '-Si 




38 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

New York City. This concern speedily became famous 
for its marine engines, and most of the steam vessels built 
in Green Point had the Novelty engine installed. 

In conjunction with the then famous president of Union 
College, Dr. Eliphalet Nott, he purchased thirty acres of 
the John Meserole farm in 1832, and the following year 
they purchased what was known as the Griffin farm. 
After these purchases and his marriage to Miss Meserole, 
his individual enterprise became largely the history of 
Green Point, and he became known as Neziah Bliss of 
Green Point. 

In 1834 the whole of the place was surveyed at his ex- 
pense, and laid out in streets and lots, the lines running 
so as properly to connect with the adjoining communities 
of Williamsburgh, Bushwick and Hunter's Point. In 1838, 
largely at his own expense, he built a foot bridge across 
Bushwick creek to the city of Williamsburgh. In 1839 the 
Ravenswood, Green Point, and Hallett's Cove Turnpike, 
which he had promoted, was opened for traffic, and fol- 
lowed the line of the present Franklin street. 

The next civic problem that came to his fertile mind 
was proper ferry accommodations across the river. As 
late as 1850 all crossings had been by means of skills. 
For about ten years prior to this date one or more skiffs, 
manned usually by their owners, maintained a service 
from the foot of East loth street, landing at Green Point 
wherever it best suited the ferryman or wherever the 
passenger desired. There was no uniform rate of ferriage. 
The price depended on the weather, the generosity of the 
passenger, or the greed of the skipper. As a rule, however, 
the rate ran from 10 cents to 25 cents. About 1850 Mr. 
Bliss obtained from the City of New York a workable 
lease, and two years later the ferry began operations, 
first from the foot of East loth street and then of East 
23rd street to the foot of Green Point avenue. This prop- 




NEZIAH BLISS OF GREEN POINT 



40 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

erty was soon disposed of, being purchased by Sheppard 
Knapp, whose family retain the franchise to this day. 

Stages were the first pubhc conveyances, a Hne running 
from the WilHamsburgh ferries (foot of Grand street), 
through Frankhn street to Poppy Smith's tavern near 
Green street. The proprietor and driver of this only stage 
was an Enghshman named New. He began operations 
about 1850, the fare at first being 25 cents; but later a 
lower fare was charged. When the City Railroad Com- 
pany in 1855 ran its cars through WilHamsburgh to the 
approach to the bridge which Mr. Bliss had erected over 
Bushwick creek, he succeeded in inducing the company 
by patient coaxing to extend the tracks over the bridge 
and along Franklin street. He thus secured for the place 
a rapid communication with all parts of Brooklyn. Inci- 
dently Mr. New's stage line was put out of business. 

The continued growth of the community made docking 
facilities necessary, so David Provost, a descendant of 
Pieter Praa, built the first private dock in 1845, on his 
own property at the foot of Freeman street. With this 
valuable dock he started the first yard for the sale of build- 
ing material, and this business was continued for many 
years after by his son John C. Provost. The federal govern- 
ment had built a dock on the shore about where Milton 
street reaches the river, and a house on it to store green 
powder. This dock was constructed by the government 
long before there were any buildings in Green Point except 
the farm houses. It was under a high bluff which extended 
from Java street to the south and ranged in height from 
a few feet to over one hundred. Part of this hill was owned 
by Archibald K. Meserole, who made quite a snug fortune 
by selling the sand from it to New York builders. The 
remainder of the hill was utilized in filling in low places 
and extending certain parts of the shore into the river. 
The powder house was abandoned by the government 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 41 

prior to 1850, but the old building and the dock remained 
for many years after, a place dear to the hearts and glorious 
memories of the men of to-day, who as boys learned to 
swim and dive from this pier. Pottery beach was also a 
favorite swimming place. 

Earlv in 1850 David Swalm opened a general store on 
the west side of Franklin street near Green. This store 
performed a very important function in the community 
of that day, for besides its regular business it supplied 
much of the social life of the neighborhood, and was also 
a center of political and literary interest. At about the 
same time Lucien Brown, who married Magdalen, the 
daughter of Neziah Bliss, started a hardware store at the 
corner of Franklin street and Green Point avenue. The 
pioneer physician and druggist was Dr. Isaac K. Snell, 
whose, store was on Franklin street near Java street. He 
settled here in 1847, and was soon followed by other medi- 
cal men, among whom were Dr. Job Davis and Dr. William 
Peer. The original lawyers of the little village were Andrew 
J. Provost, the son of David Provost, and the brothers 
Perry, Chauncey and Timothy. These men were all leaders 
in the early political and educational advancement of 
the town and county. Dr. William Starr was the first 
of the profession of dentistry who practiced in the place. 
His daughter married Mr. George W. Payntar of the 
Corn Exchange Bank. 

But Green Point has other jewels in her queenly crown 
which she can proudly display, as two of America's fore- 
most artists, George Innis and Albert Ralph Blakelock, 
had their homes here at one time. Innis was born in Newark, 
New Jersey, the son of a well-to-do father, a descendant of 
a long line of business people. While his genius was not 
confronted with the deprivations which poverty entails, 
he had his problems to face nevertheless. His father was 
a man of a decidedly practical turn of mind, shrewd and, 



42 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

from the business point of view, very successful. George's 
task was to convince his father that artists are really use- 
ful members of the community, not to be classed with the 
mentally wayward or the worthless. When Innis came to 
Green Point following his return from his first trip to 
Europe, Green Point was a quiet spot for his growing 
family, convenient to his studio across the river. It was 
while he was residing here, working under great financial 
difficulties, that he produced some of his most important 
works, paintings which have since sold for thousands of 
dollars and which he would have been glad at that time 
to sell for as many hundreds. 

Blakelock's connection with Green Point is much more 
intimate. Although born in Greenwich street, New York 
Cit}^, in 1847, the son of a physician, he married his wife 
here. Miss Cora Bailey, a daughter of George Bailey, 
who resided on Milton street for many years. In her 
youth Mrs. Blakelock was a strikingly handsome woman 
of the light blonde type, while her husband was tall, dark, 
and also handsome. A large family of children blessed 
their union. Little can be said of Blakelock's early years 
and education. An early love for painting and a passion- 
ate love of music soon revealed themselves. He mastered 
his profession without the aid of instructors. He went 
directly to nature in order to wrest from her by laborious 
methods her well-kept secrets. During all his life he was 
pressed for money, but he had a faithful and loyal supporter 
in his wife, who in her last great trial of devotion, had to 
dispose of every picture and study to keep the wolf from 
the door. The dark shadow of mental trouble hung over 
him like a pall of despair and the recognition of his un- 
questioned genius came too late to avert the catastrophe. 
He asked the world for bread but received only a stone. 
Society has not yet learned how to conserve her remark- 
able geniuses. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 43 

We turn now to a brighter picture — that of education. 
The pioneer was Mrs. Masquerier, who collected some 
twenty or thirty children into her home and taught them. 
Her unaided efforts were soon re-inforced and later sup- 
planted by the public school system. When Martin Kalb- 
fleisch moved to Green Point from Connecticut in 1842, 
he had a large family of children, and the existing school 
facilities did not meet his approval. He immediately 
attacked the school problem, with all the energy and 
resourcefulness at his command, and saw his efforts crowned 
with joy and reward in the erection of a school house on 
Manhattan avenue, between Java and Kent streets. The 
first principal of this school was Benjamin R. Davis, who 
ministered with marked success to the educational needs 
of Green Point for the princely (?) salary of ^500 per year, 
upon which he was compelled to support a large family. 
This school was the forerunner of P. S. No. 22. The 
movement thus auspiciously inaugurated by Mr. Kalb- 
fleisch was consistently followed up, and in a few years 
four excellently equipped school buildings furnished edu- 
cational opportunities for the oncoming generation. These 
schools and their successors to-day are among the best of 
the city. 

Considering next the political life of this section, we 
note that the local political body in the early davs was 
the Town Board of Supervisors. The office of the super- 
visor was an ancient and important one in the history 
of the colonies. Before the establishment of the federal 
government the supervisor was appointed to office by 
the Governor-General of the Province of New York. With 
the setting up of the independent government the method 
of selection was changed, the supervisor being elected in 
each town by viva voce vote, until the act of February 13, 
1787, when the method of voting by ballot was introduced. 
The functions of the supervisors of Kings County corres- 



44 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

ponded quite closely to those of the present Board of Alder- 
men. The first meeting of the Board of Supervisors after 
the incorporation of the old city of Brooklyn was held at 
the Apprentices' Library, May 27, 1834. 

Up to this time and for a long period John Conselyea 
of Bushwick town, of which Green Point was a part, had 
represented the neighborhood on the Board, but he was 
succeeded by Nicholas WyckofF, and in turn by the follow- 
ing: Abraham D. Soper, Martin R. Meeker, James De 
Bevoise, Charles J. De Bevoise and Martin Kalbfleisch. 
The last named was elected as a democrat in 1851. He 
always engaged actively in politics and remained supervisor 
until after consolidation. As one of the commissioners 
he aided in drafting the charter for the consolidated cities 
of Williamsburgh and Brooklyn with their outlying towns, 
including Bushwick. He served three years as President 
of the Board of Aldermen and in 1861 was elected Mayor 
of the city. 

After Green Point became the 17th ward of the con- 
solidated city, the first supervisor was H. Bartlett Fenton, 
who was succeeded by the following: George W. Kelsey, 
John A. Boutelle, Thomas C. Dieks, John T. Williams, 
the son of Jabez Williams and brother of Edward F. Wil- 
liams, the second president of the Green Point Savings 
Bank ; Jonathan Moore, Stephen Clark, Joseph Droll, 
Thomas Devyr, Herman Cottrell, Henry Kiefer, John A. 
Connolly. Clark held office longer than any other super- 
visor, about eight years, but not continuously. 

Practically all the social and literary activities of the 
people were centered about the churches, although later 
the Sewanhaka Club became an organization for the pro- 
motion of social affairs. Before any of the religious denom- 
inations began their distinctive organizations, a Sunday 
school was organized and met in the basement of the home 
of Mr. Clark Tiebout on Franklin street. The beginnings 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 45 

were most humble. Mr. William Vernon was the first 
superintendent. The school, however, soon outgrew its 
first home, and in 1846 was moved to the loft over David 
Swalm's general store. 

The first church organization began as a Methodist 
mission shortly before 1847, in a small one-story building 
on the east side of Franklin street near Huron. From 
this sprang the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Green 
Point on Union (Manhattan) avenue, between India and 
Java streets, organized in the winter of 1847-8 by the 
Rev. Sylvester H. Clark of the New York East Confer- 
ence. The society had been projected by Benjamin Down- 
ing and Charles Huff, who had hired the office of Hopkins' 
livery stable, where the early meetings were held. The 
organization of the church was quickly followed by the 
purchase of the site and the erection of a frame building. 
In 1864, during the pastorate of the Rev. John Booth, 
about half the membership left the old church under his 
leadership and organized the Green Point Tabernacle. 
The building now occupied by this church was completed 
in 1870. The property was then valued at about ^80,000 
and the membership was 300. This was also about the 
membership of the parent church, so that in 1870 the 
Methodists had about 600 members. In 1893, when Prot- 
estantism was at its high water mark, these two churches 
had a combined membership of about 1,100. 

In 1848 the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of 
Green Point was established by a committee from the 
North Classis of Long Island. On the first Sunday in May 
of that year the following consistory was ordained: David 
Swalm and William P. Guest as elders: Isaac K. Snell, 
M. D., deacon; Dr. James P. Gardner, Ann Gardner his 
wife, Mrs. Margaret Marshall, Miss Mary P. Marshall 
as members. Originally this society had its meetings in 
the loft over David Swalm's store on Franklin street, and 



46 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

their preachers were students from the seminary at New 
Brunswick, New Jersey. The Rev. John W. Ward became 
the first regular pastor in 1849, and the next year a frame 
building was erected on Java street near Franklin. Later 
the fine, large brick church on Kent street was built and 
dedicated January 30, 1870. Dr. George Talmadge was 
pastor for many years, but the longest pastorate was that 
of the Rev. Lewis Francis. 

The First Presbyterian Church of Green Point at Noble 
and Lorimer streets was organized with fourteen members 
at a meeting held April 22, 1869, at Masonic Hall, under 
the auspices of the Presbytery of Nassau. Four lots were 
purchased for ^10,000, on which was erected a one-story 
frame structure with a seating capacity of 450, at a cost 
of ^4,000. This original house of worship was dedicated 
July 18, 1869, with the following officers: deacon, George 
BrinkerhoflF; elders, John N. Stearns, David Joline; trustees, 
D. H. Furbish, Henry Dixon, David Joline, George Camp- 
bell and John N. Stearns. The present brick structure 
was erected in 1873 and Dr. William Howell Taylor served 
the society for several years as its first pastor. 

The Protestant Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, 
the Baptist, the Primitive Methodist, the Christian Church, 
the Church of Christ, the Universahst, and the Reformed 
Episcopal Church soon after were established and minis- 
tered to the social and religious needs of the Protestant 
portion of the community. 

For the .Catholic inhabitants the parish of St. Antony of 
Padua was established about the year 1856, the first church, 
a brick structure, being located on India street east of Man- 
hattan avenue. The Rev. John Brady, respected by every- 
one and dearly beloved by all his parishioners for his generous 
heart and sweetness of disposition, became its first pastor. 
The present church on Manhattan avenue at the head of 
Milton street, the largest and most pretentious church 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 47 

edifice in this section of our city, was dedicated June 
lo, 1874. 

The center of business activity having shifted from 
Frankhn street to Manhattan avenue in 1882, the Bank 
moved to new quarters at 339 Manhattan avenue between 
Milton street and Green Point avenue, where it remained 
until December, 1885. At this time it was compelled to 
move again on account of a fire which destroyed the bank 
and two adjoining buildings. A temporary banking room 
was hurriedly fitted up at 127 Green Point avenue and 
business was continued there until 1887. 

In the meantime, the property on the northwest corner 
of Manhattan avenue and Noble street, then occupied 
by John Winter, druggist, had been purchased. In August, 
1887, after extensive alterations had been made to this 
property, including installation of vault, modern banking 
equipment and trustees' room, the bank moved into a new 
home which it was to occupy for twenty-one years. Dur- 
ing this period the bank's deposits were increased four 
million dollars. 

It is impossible to write any account of the develop- 
ment of Green Point without paying considerable attention 
to industries. In its history it has followed the same line 
of growth and change as all other communities similarly 
located and affected by the changing currents of occu- 
pations and inhabitants. The growth of the means of 
conveyance, and ready access to the great city across 
the river, guaranteed the future, but the coming on a large 
scale of commerce and industry determined definitely the 
character of the place. By i860 the Five Black Arts, 
so called. Printing, Pottery, Gas, Glass, and Iron, were 
firmly established. The earlier industries remained only 
as long as they were imperatively needed for the life of 
the people and then they were supplanted by other forms 
of activity. The farmer gave place to the shipwright and 



48 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

he in turn to the factory worker. Shipbuilding went to 
the Pacific coast or to the coast of Maine, where raw ma- 
terials from the forests could be had in abundance at the 
water's edge and labor was cheaper and not so well organ- 
ized. New avenues to wealth were opened as a result of 
the industrial invasion. Real estate values rose rapidly. 
The employer of a hundred hands with a small margin 
of profit from the daily labor of each worker could progress 
financially much more rapidly than the farmer who had 
only a few men under him. 

In December of the year 1868, a newspaper in a neigh- 
boring community, wrote as follows of the Green Point 
of that day: "Within the last two or three years man- 
ufacturing interests of considerable magnitude have sprung 
up in this suburban locality, and several large and sub- 
stantial buildings for manufacturing are now in the course 
of completion. Some of these employ several hundred 
hands, thus enabling many to avail themselves of their 
labor, their sole capital, in providing the comforts of a 
home and means of contentment." 

"The large accession of productive industry, and the 
superior facilities for carrying on business in this favored 
locality, have naturally rapidly increased the population 
of the Ward, and a still further demand for houses and 
homes is the result. But the enterprise of our citizens is 
equal to the emergency, and from seventy-five to one 
hundred houses are now being constructed and will be 
readv for occupancy when the early spring returns. It 
is not to be wondered at that so many seek this section. 
Its natural advantages and attractions account for it, 
its churches and public schools, commodious and con- 
venient, with cheaper rents, better air, and plenty of Ridge- 
wood water. It has two railroads and two ferries to facil- 
itate travel; a discount and a savings bank (the Green 
Point Savings Bank had been chartered at the last ses- 



H 
K 
m 

cs 
> 

> 

H 
\0 




50 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

sion of the legislature), for the accommodation and se- 
curity of all their money transactions." 

Among the pioneer manufacturers was Martin Kalb- 
fleisch. This captain of industry, to whom frequent ref- 
erences have been made m previous pages, was born in 
Holland, and came to America in 1826, when he was twenty- 
two years of age. After trying several localities in and 
about New York he finally settled in our section in 1842, 
and built a plant for the manufacture of acids and other 
chemicals. About 1850 he removed his business to Bush- 
wick and erected a large plant on the Jamaica turnpike 
near Master's toll-gate, and his Green Point factory was 
taken over and used by William Boch and Sons. 

One of the earliest arts, reaching back into the twilight 
of history and almost contemporaneous with man himself, 
is that of the potter. Green Point, like Grecian Athens, 
was at one time celebrated for her potters, but this par- 
ticular glory has passed to other ceramic centers. It is 
still an open question whether the first purely American 
porcelain was made by Charles Cartlidge at Green Point, 
but it is certain that as early as 1848 he had established a 
pottery on what was long known as Pottery hill just to the 
east of Pottery beach. He turned out china door furnish- 
ings and china buttons, and then a little later fine table- 
ware, at first done in bone china and then in hard porcelain. 
Many famous craftsmen of superior ability were in his em- 
ploy in the decorative department. Frank Lockett and 
Elijah Tattler were employed as painters. Mr. Tattler 
afterwards founded the Tattler Decoration Company of 
Trenton, New Jersey, one of the great pottery centers of 
this country. Mr. Josiah Jones, his modeler, was a man 
of pronounced genius, whose beautiful creations were pro- 
duced in both Parian and Jasper ware. While at Green 
Point he executed a number of busts and bas-reliefs of 
such famous Americans as Chief Justice Marshall, Daniel 




TEMPORARY QUARTERS AT I 27 GREEN POINT AVENUE 



52 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

Webster, Zachary Taylor and Henry Clay in fine brooch 
medallions. 

In 1855 this firm dissolved and reorganized as the Amer- 
ican Porcelain Manufacturing Company, but no success 
was attamed and the works were closed the following year. 
Thus expired the most promising pottery venture in America 
up to that time. Failure was due to operating along the 
lines of mediaeval times and the output did not meet a pop- 
ular demand. The day of the artist-artisan had passed and 
workmen producing on a large scale at low cost had arrived. 
About 1850 William Boch and his four sons, Anthony, 
William, Nicholas, and Victor, all famous craftsmen, came 
to Green Point and started several potteries. Knowing 
more of the artistic than of the business side of the venture 
they did not succeed in holding their properties. Two 
of them, the Union Porcelain Works and the Empire China 
Works, are still in existence. Thomas C. Smith, a New 
York architect, joined them in 1867, when they were oper- 
ating in the old Martin Kalbfleisch factory on Oakland 
street, and he eventually succeeded them and organized 
the Union Porcelain Works, a successful enterprise as 
long as he lived. Bone china was made until 1863, when 
it was replaced by a purely kaolinic body in 1865. Mr. 
Karl Muller, a famous modeler, accomplished some am- 
bitious work at this pottery, among his masterpieces being 
the Century and Keramos vases. In those days Mr. Smith, 
in the face of tremendous diflftculties, produced a very 
good china body, and the firm was for a considerable period 
of time the only one to make a pure porcelain. Here at 
one time was one of the most thriving industries, a pottery 
teeming with workers about the rotating wheels, turning 
out wares by the thousands of pieces and supplying an 
ever increasing demand. 

Glass has played an important part in the history of 
civilization, aiding man in the production of objects useful 




;-*l?>=^'--- 



BANK AT MANHATTAN AVENUE AND NOBLE STREET 



54 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

and artistic. Green Point has done its full share of work 
in producing glass. In the late fifties, Mr. Christian Dorf- 
linger, whose name has always been associated in America 
with artistic cut-glass, and who had established in 1854 a 
large cut-glass works on Plymouth street, Brooklyn, came 
to Green Point and purchased the property now owned 
by the Gleason-Tiebout Company on Commercial street 
from Union College, and built a factory for the manufacture 
of lamp chimneys. The discovery and use of the petroleum 
product, kerosene, had created a demand for this kind of 
glassware. Mr. William F. Dorflinger relates that when 
his father erected this factory there were no houses in the 
vicinity, so his father was compelled to erect the building 
now used by the Gleason-Tiebout Company as offices, 
as tenements for his working people. The old chimney of 
the factory is still standing in the rear of these buildings, 
a grim reminder of earlier days before the creek was filled 
in, for the building stood on the water's edge. Mr. Dorf- 
linger the younger recalls the time when as a boy he 
would dive out the back door and go swimming in what 
was then crystal clear water. 

In 1865 Mr. Christian Dorflinger, having an ample 
fortune, retired from business to his farm in Pennsylvania. 
The Green Point factory was sold to Bailey and Dobel- 
mann, former employees. The new firm made money at 
the start, but subsequently failed. The property was 
then leased to J. W. Siebel and then to the E. P. Gleason 
Company, and finally the present owners, the Gleason- 
Tiebout Company, purchased the plant. Mr. Marshall W. 
Gleason and Mr. R. T. Cordeau of this firm, developed in 
America the art of etching glassware for lighting fixtures, 
and they hold the only patents. With every advance in 
electric lighting they have kept steady pace; for every 
new variety of lamp they have produced the proper illu- 
minating glassware. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 55 

The earliest settlers of Green Point were their own 
lumbermen. Dirck Volckertsen and Pieter Praa, aided 
by slave labor, felled the trees, hewed the timbers and 
planks, and fashioned them into boards, beams, and studs 
with which they built their Dutch homesteads. The 
land was well covered with trees, with an abundance of 
conifers, scarlet oak, chestnut, and yellow birch. The 
Dutch settlers were more proficient in the sawing and pre- 
paring of timber than were the English. 

With the appearance of the ship 3^ards, and the demand 
for workmen's houses, came lumber yards and dealers in 
building material. Some of these yards still survive, but 
most of them have disappeared. The first timber dealers 
were probably William Smith and Son, who in 1850 and 
for years after had their yard at the foot of Kent street, 
then J. W. and T. D. Jones at West and Kent streets, 
John C. Orr and Company, at one time Orr and Rowland, 
at the foot of India street, and George H. Stone at Noble 
and Franklin streets. Roswell Eldridge at his yard also 
manufactured tree nails from locust, used in the early days 
in all the ship yards. Mr. E. C. Smith came about 1870 
and established his yard and box factory. Later James 
D. Learv's yard was opened at Eagle and Provost streets. 

In 1888 the Leary firm financed the building of the 
famous Joggins raft, which arrived safely in New York 
after a trip of over seven hundred miles from Nova Scotia 
on August II. Eleven days were spent on this anxious 
voyage. For more than fifty years before this date lumber 
transportation by raft had been tried both on the Pacific 
coast and in the East, but every attempt had ended in 
failure. Mr. Leary himself had experienced two failures, 
before the great cigar raft was successfully launched and 
towed the long distance into New York harbor. The 
dimensions were 595 feet in length, with a girth for over 
TOO feet of 150 feet and a depth of 38 feet. The great 



56 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

mass of logs was bound together by iron chains and steel 
wire and was ahnost as compact and sohd as though it 
were the trunk of some giant tree. 

It is only some sixty years ago when the world was in 
the candle period of illumination so far as the vast masses 
of the people were concerned. No better measurement 
of the swift advances of the last century can be found 
than the rapid changes in artificial illumination. So rapid 
was the advance that certain remote parts of the world 
leaped at contact with civilization from the primitive 
torch to the electric lamp. For others living in civilized 
communities the transition was more gradual from the 
tallow candle, the spluttering sperm oil lamp, the kerosene 
lamp, and the gas light to the brilliant electric light. In 
1859 Edwin L. Drake, financially backed by promoters,, 
successfully sank the first oil well at Titusville, Pa., and 
solved the petroleum problem. The enormous supplies 
of crude petroleum never had any great industrial value 
however, until a method of purification was found and 
developed and large refineries were established. As the 
city of New York was the first great market for both crude 
and refined oil, and as it has always been one of the strategic 
locations commercially considered, it rapidly became the 
locality of a number of large and important refineries. 

The refinery of Charles Pratt and Company on the 
river front at Bushwick creek, while within the geographical 
limits of Williamsburgh, nevertheless really belongs to 
this section. This famous refinery was established about 
1867 and was remarkably successful. Astral oil, one of 
its chief products, became known as the safest and best 
of the kerosenes, and the demand oftentimes outran the 
supply. Mr. Pratt employed Green Point mechanics, and 
this great plant has always been an important economic 
factor since its inception in the welfare of this section. 
The founder of this refinery and his family after him have. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 57 

with modest and unassuming liberality, been consistent 
contributors to the social work of this community. Thirty 
years ago Mr. Pratt built the Astral Apartments with 
the purpose of affording his working people better livmg 
conditions. It remains a monument to his kind-heartedness 
and interest in the welfare of his employees. 

Our country has been abundantly blessed in vast natural 
resources, the raw material from which has been builded 
a strong and wealthy civilization. Among these resources 
none has been more useful, nor more potent as a factor 
than has iron. Its discovery and use have made the nation 
industrially independent and greatly increased the national 
wealth. Great mines have been opened and great manu- 
facturing centers established. Our annual output of pig 
iron from our modern blast furnaces exceeds in value 
any other manufactured product. The sensational and 
dramatic development of the steel and iron industry in 
America bounded by the space of fifty years was so broad 
in its sweep, that in the early days of industrial Green 
Point this community participated in a large way in the 
progress and resultant wealth accruing therefrom. 

Among the foundries which from time to time have 
flourished here were Braid Brothers, H. C. Harney and 
Company, Burr and Houston, and later Taylor and Com- 
pany. All these were jobbing foundries, specializing in 
machinery castings, and at least two of them manufactured 
piano plates. The architectural branch of the iron industry 
was represented by such firms as Cheney and Hewlett, 
Smith and O. Rourke, and Henry C. Fisher. Mr. Farrel 
Logan manufactured steam boilers and also constructed 
the great gas tanks which here and there may be seen 
throughout the city. Ball and Jewell's machine shop 
has been continuously in business on Franklin street for 
over half a century. 

Another ancient craft, rope making, has long been estab- 



58 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

lished here. The two cordage plants, the American Man- 
ufacturing Company, and the Chelsea Fibre Mills, are 
among the largest in the world, and at present are em- 
ploying more labor than any other single industry in Green 
Point. 

Among other manufacturing concerns of long ago 
that of Burr and Company may be mentioned. In 1858 
their factory was established at the junction of West 
and Eagle streets, for the making of tackle blocks to 
supply local ship fitters, the general trade, and the 
United States Government. 

It is said of that great manufacturing center of England, 
Birmingham, that it turns out anything from a pen point 
to an anchor. In variety of product, in the quantities 
it turns out. Green Point can truly be said to be an Amer- 
ican Birmingham. The raw materials are drawn from all 
parts of the world and their manufacture provides em- 
ployment for our people and supplies for our ever hungry 
machines. Our products go to all quarters of the habitable 
globe. A traveler a few years since, visiting a synagogue 
in Jerusalem, observed that the lamp ever kept burning 
in that sacred place was filled from a five gallon case marked 
"Pratt's Astral Oil." In the earlier days our sturdy Green 
Pointers built ships, our spar-makers hewed and smoothed 
the masts and spars, our chandlers fitted the canvas and 
supplied the craft for the ocean voyage, and these ships 
returning, brought to us from distant lands and the islands 
of the sea a great variety of wealth. To-day over fifteen 
thousand hands are employed in our factories and in sup- 
plying human wants produce untold wealth. These fac- 
tories are scattered about the outskirts of the dwelling 
center, mostly along the water front, some very large, 
with thousands of hands on their pay rolls, many of smaller 
size, but producing a vast variety of the goods of com- 
merce from dolls to gas tanks. 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 59 

The advent of these manufacturing estabhshments 
brought in its train a change in the character of the nation- 
aHties of our people. Until about 1880 the settlers were 
of Anglo-Saxon, Dutch and French extraction; but these 
were then rapidly supplanted by different sorts of laborers 
from the southern and eastern countries of Europe, who 
brought with them strength and hope, but at the same 
time made a new and serious social problem. Churches 
for the Russian, the Slovak, the Hungarian, and the Pole 
were soon dedicated. The vast problem of the Ameri- 
canization of these peoples remained untouched. The 
native Green Pointers have done little or nothing to 
remedy this unfortunate condition, one that is duplicated 
many times over in manufacturing centers the country 
over. Our manufacturers must learn the lesson that 
something besides profits must be considered, that the 
turning of these foreigners into liberty-loving, intelligent 
citizens is in part their duty, that compulsory education 
for adults is as necessary for the safety of the republic 
as for their children, and that clever social propagandists 
alwavs find it easy to sow destructive seeds among an 
ignorant and unassimilated people. The corner stone of 
a democracy is education, not for a few but for all, not 
for children only but for parents as well. Instruction in 
our social, industrial, and political ideals in order that 
knowledge of these may be created, is imperative. The 
war is doing much to unify us as a people, but the par- 
tial result gained in this manner must be supplemented 
by courses of instruction for foreign born adults. National 
recognition and national aid should help in the proper 
solution of this serious and pressing problem. Under- 
standing IS needed by both these newcomers of our 
national ideals and by the native-born Americans of the 
lateh' arrived. The Americanization League of the Green 
Point Neighborhood Association and the Green Point 



60 HISTORIC GREEN POINT 

Y. M. C. A. have put forth some needed eflPorts with 
EngHsh classes and talks to men on health and civics. 
These efforts have been comparatively feeble however, 
because of lack of popular support. 

The northern end of Green Point is largely a foreign 
city, over 80% of the inhabitants being of foreign parentage 
and 40% of foreign birth. Over one half of this population 
is Polish and Russian. In this section the greatest illiteracy 
prevails, ii^%. At the present time the percentage of 
illiteracy is higher than that of any other section of the 
city. While the moral conditions and observance of the 
law are as good as m other portions of the borough, the 
infant mortality rate has been slightly higher than in 
other sections. Here is another loud call for civic better- 
ment to those who have been negligent in the past of their 
opportunities and obligations. 

The past IS glorious with a most creditable record of 
growth and achievement. The present has its manifold 
duties in converting the former citizens of monarchies 
into devoted loyal citizens of the greatest democracy the 
world has ever seen. The future is irradiated by the rain- 
bow promise of future progress, of larger liberty, of richer 
well-being. As Green Point has played no mean part 
in our national drama, so in the future it is to be expected 
that in all things American she will stand in the front 
rank. 

Returning to the latest period in the history of the 
Bank, we find that the steady growth had been such that 
it was felt provision must be made to handle adequately 
the present business and particularly to prepare for the 
future development of the institution. It was decided 
to erect a building of a size and type which would reflect 
the strength and dignity of the Bank, and which would 
be devoted solely to the Bank's business. 

With this object in mind the trustees purchased property 



HISTORIC GREEN POINT 61 

located at the southwest corner of Manhattan avenue 
and Calyer street in 1905. Building operations were 
delayed until one and one-half years had elapsed because 
of some unmatured leases on the property. Work was 
begun finally in May, 1907, by the John Pierce Company, 
builders, after plans drawn by Helme and Huberty, ar- 
chitects. The new buildmg was opened for business on 
November 12, 1908. It represents an outlay of ^170,000, 
and m its simplicity and permanency of construction 
exemplifies the reputation of the Bank in the communitv 
for conservatism, for strength, and for service. To-day, 
ten years after coming to its new building, the deposits 
have grown to approximately ^11,000,000. 

If that early and great citizen, Pieter Praa, who knew 
Green Point as a quiet settlement with only a farmhouse 
here and there nestling low on a green knoll, with sur- 
rounding gardens, gay in spring with multi-colored tulips, 
and bright in summer with fiery canna or aureate golden 
glow, or wrapped in winter in a pure white blanket of 
glistening snow, could come to life again, he would see a 
modern industrial beehive. Smoky skies, blazing blasts 
from fiery furnaces, the never ceasing machinery in a 
hundred factories, where thousands of laborers spend their 
busy days, the loaded trucks and heavily laden ships would 
all meet his gaze. To him and to all his companions of 
that day these changes would be strange and frightful. 
He would no longer be able to raise his own food or make 
his own clothes. No longer would he travel on horseback 
or by stage on land or in skiffs on the water. His day 
of isolation with its pastoral and simple life has passed 
and in its place have come the improved methods of travel, 
of heating, of illumination, of food and clothing supply. 
To-day is the era of factories, furnaces, shops, and foundries, 
all evidences of the great commercial and industrial era in 
which we now live. 



CONGRESS 




